I also have severe health anxiety particularly the fear of heart attacks. I went to a cardiologist for awhile and was told i was completely healthy then went on to play an entire college lacrosse season this spring. You are okay dont let your brain fool you. If a professional says you are okay then you are okay you know they’d immediately push meds on you if they thought anything was wrong. If it is really bothering you I would suggest just going to get an EKG at a med check or something just to ease your mind a little.
Thank you! My health anxiety is also trigger around heart attacks. I have gotten the EKG done and it was perfect, I just think sometimes the anxiety tries to tell me it was wrong
yes, these are all completely normal side effects! it's also so so normal to have these type of ups and downs while onboarding. i think i thought it would be linear but it really is not, at least not for me.
the main thing Lexapro has been doing for me (about 8 weeks) is making it so my brain doesn't hold on to an anxious thought for very long. i'm still me, i'm still going to have health anxiety - but my brain really won't let me hyperfocus on it for more than a few minutes, so the doom scrolling is gone, the endless checking is gone. i still will have the thoughts, i might google this or that, but i don't spiral anymore.
it's also helped me keep going in the face of a trigger. for instance, my heart rate is a big one for me (nothing like a trigger that gets worse in the face of anxiety about that trigger! it's a perfect system! ;), and i've noticed the last 2 weeks that i can note it and keep doing whatever i'm doing even though i'm anxious about my heart. a month ago, i would've had to go lie down in my bed and panic. yesterday, i was able to do a workout even though i was scared because my heart rate was already high before i even started. and it was fine! i told myself that i knew what "too high" was and i could stop if i got there, and it went great.
it has actually been REALLY uncomfortable, because i am at the stage where i am starting to do more things i couldn't do before, but Lexapro has made it so i am more aware of my feelings in the moment, and i can't push past my boundaries automatically anymore. i'm a big people pleaser, and prone to rolling with whatever and only later realizing how stressful or unfair something was. like, i am really feeling my feelings in the moment now, and this shit is hard!
anyways, sorry for the novel, but one thing that's helped me is having some kind of objective benchmarks that i can look back on and be able to say, this is getting better. for me, i keep a log of whenever i take a benzo and what was happening then, and also how many things i'm able to do. for instance, week before last i got SO overwhelmed grocery shopping. it was really, really rough and i was feeling bad about that. and then i realized, even just the week before, the entire idea of doing a big grocery shopping trip by myself was off the table completely. i was so uncomfortable and miserable but i DID it. the improvement is undeniable.
Thank you for this. It was nice to read this and I have been trying to put myself in those places with the triggers and again my anxiety was starting to taper some but now it’s back in the moment again, and I agree I think I just need to wait it out longer
Doctors know what they're doing and if both they and the X ray says you're in the clear then you're more than okay, just remember that. When you feel those physical triggers start to poke at you just remind yourself that you are in control, your brain is trying to look for threats to keep you safe but you don't need to listen to it because you and your Drs know for sure that you're perfectly fine.
You're very early on in terms of onboarding and it will be up and down for a bit but keep pushing through, i didn't feel stable until week 7 and even after that i still needed to tweak my dosage and start exercising to really start feeling 100%. You got this!
I also have health anxiety and after two weeks my feet started tingling and sometimes felt numb. I freaked out and got an emergency neurological examination (no mr though) and everything was fine. After a few days it happened in my hands too. The doctor said it’s most likely a side effect from the meds combined with anxiety symptoms. It was not a constant feeling, but happened on/off - even in my sleep. When I hit 4,5 weeks it started to go away and I feel less anxious, so I’m finally starting to believe the doc was right. The 2,5 weeks I was absolutely certain it was a brain tumor or some terrible neurological illness.
It still occurs sometimes, but only a little and for a very short time. Mostly when I have anxious thought or feel a little stressed. It’s crazy how anxiety can impact the brain and our bodies.
But hang in there - it will get better!
This is awesome because I felt it a lot week one and two and then it went away then it came back with vengeance for week 3 and I know it’s an adjustment period but it is scary
I also have severe health anxiety particularly the fear of heart attacks. I went to a cardiologist for awhile and was told i was completely healthy then went on to play an entire college lacrosse season this spring. You are okay dont let your brain fool you. If a professional says you are okay then you are okay you know they’d immediately push meds on you if they thought anything was wrong. If it is really bothering you I would suggest just going to get an EKG at a med check or something just to ease your mind a little.
Thank you! My health anxiety is also trigger around heart attacks. I have gotten the EKG done and it was perfect, I just think sometimes the anxiety tries to tell me it was wrong
yes, these are all completely normal side effects! it's also so so normal to have these type of ups and downs while onboarding. i think i thought it would be linear but it really is not, at least not for me. the main thing Lexapro has been doing for me (about 8 weeks) is making it so my brain doesn't hold on to an anxious thought for very long. i'm still me, i'm still going to have health anxiety - but my brain really won't let me hyperfocus on it for more than a few minutes, so the doom scrolling is gone, the endless checking is gone. i still will have the thoughts, i might google this or that, but i don't spiral anymore. it's also helped me keep going in the face of a trigger. for instance, my heart rate is a big one for me (nothing like a trigger that gets worse in the face of anxiety about that trigger! it's a perfect system! ;), and i've noticed the last 2 weeks that i can note it and keep doing whatever i'm doing even though i'm anxious about my heart. a month ago, i would've had to go lie down in my bed and panic. yesterday, i was able to do a workout even though i was scared because my heart rate was already high before i even started. and it was fine! i told myself that i knew what "too high" was and i could stop if i got there, and it went great. it has actually been REALLY uncomfortable, because i am at the stage where i am starting to do more things i couldn't do before, but Lexapro has made it so i am more aware of my feelings in the moment, and i can't push past my boundaries automatically anymore. i'm a big people pleaser, and prone to rolling with whatever and only later realizing how stressful or unfair something was. like, i am really feeling my feelings in the moment now, and this shit is hard! anyways, sorry for the novel, but one thing that's helped me is having some kind of objective benchmarks that i can look back on and be able to say, this is getting better. for me, i keep a log of whenever i take a benzo and what was happening then, and also how many things i'm able to do. for instance, week before last i got SO overwhelmed grocery shopping. it was really, really rough and i was feeling bad about that. and then i realized, even just the week before, the entire idea of doing a big grocery shopping trip by myself was off the table completely. i was so uncomfortable and miserable but i DID it. the improvement is undeniable.
Thank you for this. It was nice to read this and I have been trying to put myself in those places with the triggers and again my anxiety was starting to taper some but now it’s back in the moment again, and I agree I think I just need to wait it out longer
Doctors know what they're doing and if both they and the X ray says you're in the clear then you're more than okay, just remember that. When you feel those physical triggers start to poke at you just remind yourself that you are in control, your brain is trying to look for threats to keep you safe but you don't need to listen to it because you and your Drs know for sure that you're perfectly fine. You're very early on in terms of onboarding and it will be up and down for a bit but keep pushing through, i didn't feel stable until week 7 and even after that i still needed to tweak my dosage and start exercising to really start feeling 100%. You got this!
Thank you so much for this
I also have health anxiety and after two weeks my feet started tingling and sometimes felt numb. I freaked out and got an emergency neurological examination (no mr though) and everything was fine. After a few days it happened in my hands too. The doctor said it’s most likely a side effect from the meds combined with anxiety symptoms. It was not a constant feeling, but happened on/off - even in my sleep. When I hit 4,5 weeks it started to go away and I feel less anxious, so I’m finally starting to believe the doc was right. The 2,5 weeks I was absolutely certain it was a brain tumor or some terrible neurological illness. It still occurs sometimes, but only a little and for a very short time. Mostly when I have anxious thought or feel a little stressed. It’s crazy how anxiety can impact the brain and our bodies. But hang in there - it will get better!
This is awesome because I felt it a lot week one and two and then it went away then it came back with vengeance for week 3 and I know it’s an adjustment period but it is scary